Mineral Accretion Technology for Reef Restoration

ENTRY DATE: 21.04.2015 | LAST UPDATE: 21.04.2015

CATEGORIES:

  • Coastal Regions
  • Coral reef

TECHNOLOGIES MATURITY:

Applicable immediately

Technology Owners:

  • Biorock
  • Global Coral Reef Alliance
  • Coral Triangle Conservancy – The Philippines

Needs Address

  • Conservation of resources
  • Measures against erosion, storm surges, flooding, inundation

Adaptation effects

  • Restores beaches and protects low-lying islands and coasts from erosion and sea level rise
  • Helps to increase coral settlement, growth, budding, branching, healing, survival and resistance to stress
  • Increases food security, fishermen with more abundant and diverse fish species
  • Mitigates coral disease 

Overview and Features

Biorock electrolytic technology uses low-voltage direct current trickle charges to grow self-repairing limestone structures of any size or shape in the sea. They provide a marine construction material used to produce breakwaters that are capable of rapidly developing and sustaining severely eroded beaches. In addition to these physical benefits the process also has profound stimulatory effects on many forms of marine life. This technique has been shown to greatly increase the settlement, healing, growth and survival of corals and to enable resistance in corals, intertidal salt marsh grasses and coral forming marine organisms to stresses such as extreme high temperatures, sedimentation, and eutrophication.

Cost

Technology costs – wire and electricity

Energy source

Electrical charge powered by solar and tidal energy sources

Ease of maintenance

Once instigated limestone strength continues to increase and corals are self-repairing 

Technology performance

  • Limestone gets stronger with age and is self-repairing, with damaged areas growing back first
  • Helps in minimising coral  disease which helps the coral grow faster
  • Has achieved beach reparation in the space of 2-3 years through developing new reefs in front of severely eroding beaches and cultivating new sand (Goreua, 2002).
  • Growth rates are 200 to 1,000 percent faster in the electrical field, and coral survival is up to 1,600 to 5,000 percent higher after severe heat stroke (Goreua, 2002).

Considerations

Requires technical expertise

Co-benefit, suitability for developing countries

  • Helps sustain and repair marine ecosystems 
  • Little support from government or international agencies who view Marine Protected Areas as a more reliable way of maintaining marine ecosystems, yet such conservation efforts have largely failed to protect corals, which are subject to multiple natural and anthropogenic pressures, meaning that large-scale active restoration will be needed.
  • The reefs can also be grown where water quality is an issue
  • Local management of resulting resources can sustain and empower communities

Information Resources

Cureton, P. 2014. Videre: Drawing and Evolutionary Architectures. (MADE), No. 7, Nov, pp.18-27. Available from: http://www.globalcoral.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Paul_Cureton_20131.pdf [30 November 2014]

Goreua, T. J. 2002. Restoring Indonesia's Coral Reef Fisheries: Karang Lestari Project, Pemuteran, Bali. Biorock Technology. Available from: http://www.biorock.org/content/karang-lestari-project-pemuteran-bali [30 November 2014]

Goreau, T.J. 2014 New Hopes for Asia’s Coral Reefs. Asian Diver, 2014, Volume 131, Issue 2, Pages 70-79. Available from: http://www.globalcoral.org/topics/reef-restoration/ [30 November 2014]